Abstract ID: 3.11462 | Accepted as Talk | Talk/Oral | TBA | TBA

There has been significant progress in the last two decades in long-term monitoring in the Andes. However, existing initiatives have worked mostly independently and emphasized biophysical over social dynamics. The recent consolidation of the Andean Network of Socio-ecological Observatories (ROSA) aims to address this limitation. ROSA proposes a bottom-up approach to integrate existing monitoring initiatives across the Andes, using a transdisciplinary approach, in which the impacts of key transformation drivers (climate and land-use change) on environmental and social variables, are studied. Here, we report results from an integrated analysis of research and monitoring initiatives in the Mérida Observatory of the ROSA Network in Venezuela. We combined an analysis of the environmental history in the region in the last centuries, with a synthesis of results from the last decades of monitoring of climate, hydrology, water quality, glacier retreat, vegetation dynamics, land-use change and socio-economic conditions. Results indicate that climate change, reflected in increased temperatures and reduced precipitations, can be linked with accelerated glacier retreat and the assembly of novel ecosystems during primary succession, as well as changes in vegetation composition and species richness in high elevation páramo summits. At lower elevations, diverse land-use systems with different histories have shown contrasting impacts. Wheat cultivation over more than 300 years resulted in severe degradation of vegetation and soils in drier areas, while more recent long-fallow agriculture for potato production in more humid areas, has allowed a more effective process of secondary succession and vegetation regeneration. The last 50 years have seen a significant increase in market oriented agricultural intensification, resulting in very significant increases in farmers incomes, but also increased conflicts for water use and agrochemical pollution, with important effects on sanitary conditions. Surprisingly, the last decade of severe economic crisis in Venezuela did not result in a decline in agricultural production, farmers responding with increased efficiency in labour and agricultural inputs. However, there has been a clear increase in rural poverty. A key open challenge is to integrate the analysis of climate and land-use change impacts, and promote a more effective use of this information for land-use planning and decision making.